OMG! CMJ!

We took in too many great acts this weekend during the CMJ Music Marathon in New York to list them all, but here is a sampling of who you’ll be hearing in the next few months...

The XX
Hometown: Southwest London
Next local date: Nov. 11 (Bowery Ballroom, NYC)/Nov. 13 (Making Time at Pure, Philadelphia)/Dec. 4 (The Paradise, Boston)
No band had as much buzz as these Brits, and rightfully so. Their album is intriguing with its soulful warm electronic love songs. Live, they are delicate, breathy and beautiful and they inhabit the mood of their debut to captivating perfection, standing in a line across the stage, rather than in the traditional “drummer goes in back” formation. It’s a apt reflection of the vulnerability.
Coolest coincidence: The large magic marker “X” on the guitar strumming hand of Romy Madley Croft was not an intentional reminder to the crowd of the name of her band, but an indicator to bar tenders not to server her alcohol, since she is under 21.

Small Black
Hometown: Brooklyn
Next local date: Nov. 6, (Big Fung, Boston)  Nov. 7 (Market Hotel, Brooklyn)
These guys immediately electrified the crowd with high-energy synth-pop that has as much abstract fuzz as it does wistfully catchy hooks. Though they’re unsigned, Pitchfork already reviewed the top track off their debut EP, “Despicable Dogs” and a Spin magazine photographer was sent specifically to shoot Small Black and then ditch the showcase for another show.
Influences: Referencing Roxy Music, OMD and RZA, founders Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner say they’re trying to use texture and melody to get technology out of the box.

MyNameIsJohnMichael
Hometown: New Orleans
Next local date: TBD
What began as an online songwriting project for John Michael Rouchell has become a live show more powerful than his initial concept was adventurous (He wrote and recorded one song each week for a year, and listeners voted which 13 songs would make up the final album). Playing a Bayou-flavored version of the Arcade Fire’s anthemic indie pop, the six-piece band sing dead-on harmonies and rock out ferociously when the occasion calls for it, but they also have a great understanding of dynamics, and know when to quiet down.
Performance highlight: When drummer Eric Rogers brought a trashcan into the audience to wail on it with a chain for their song “The One.” That is what is depicted on the photo on the jump to this story.

Bodega Girls
Hometown: Boston
Next local date: Wednesday (Middlesex Lounge) Friday (Glasslands, Brooklyn)
This Boston act simply killed with their dance floor-tested party anthems like “We Are Losers” and “She’s Into Black Guys,” leading the crowd in sing alongs and dancing into the audience to shake it with the fans.
Sample lyric: “Mary Jane, cocaine/but chocolate is her main thing”

Surfer Blood
Hometown: West Palm, FLA
Next local date: Monday (Death by Audio, Brooklyn)/Nov. 12 (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia)
This wise-beyond-their-years  quintet combines Strokes-like guitar interplay with Shins-like intellectualism and Pavement-like intensity. They also have a maniac with a big afro playing percussion that is amazing to watch and even more amazing to hear, as he finds the tiny spaces between the beat the drummer is playing.
Between song banter highlight: “F— yeah!”